Laura

I’m Laura, born in the summer of 1990, nowadays working as a bartender in Oulu. I have 9 tattoos.

I took my first tattoo at the age of 17 when I persuaded my parents to give a permission for my first picture. My dad had his 40th birthday back then and we went to get tattoos together. I had dreamed of tattooing wings on my back, but since there were so many of those, I chose to tattoo a phrase in Japanese. The phrase is translated I lost my wings. The text has lots of personal meanings. I also studied Japanese 4 years, and the phrase written in the Japanese looks better to my eyes. And it’s also a good starter for a conversation when no one understands what it says.

My other tattoo is a heart shaped musical clef. Music is very important to me, I do not move anywhere without headsets on my ears. I also played the piano a little while when I was younger. Now, when I’m older, I’m a bit sad that I ever stopped playing the piano.

Behind my ear you can find one of my favourite artist, Japanese Hyde, logo Virgin Tear tattooed to my skin. The logo also looks like a half a heart so sometimes I just say it’s that as they assumed.

I’m a big fan of the Moomins (some would say too much). I was already dreaming about Moomin -themed tattoo when I took my first one to my back. So for my third tattoo, I took my favourite character from the Moomins, Snufkin. The figure also reflects that I like to travel a lot, even though I have been able to do it very little. In the picture, the Snufkin moves forward, not to stay in the same place and to move if he feels like it, and he can always come back when needed. However, I still need a lot of training on this myself, as for this age, I have only been living in the same town.

My family is very important to me, and I also wanted to bring it up in my tattoos. I had a good vision but since I can not draw, I left the drawing part for an artist. I took a tattoo on my left shoulder and the result became more amazing what I could expect! The sun and the moon in the picture reflect my parents and the 6 stars around the tattoo are my siblings and me.

It was already clear that I would continue to illustrate my left hand, so I immediately booked a new appointment. Next, the same artist drew me a dreamcatcher. Even though it is attached to the family tattoos, the images have no connection. I just think the dreamcatchers are beautiful and interesting.

I’ve always been a fairly big materialist. I still have my cupboards full of stuff that I did not really ever need after all. My left biceps Spanish-language text translates to The best things in life are not things and it’s a reminder that material does not make you happy.

The idea of my right hand came to my mind quite coincidentally when I was in the catering business fair. It’s a reflection of my bartender’s profession. I watched at the fair when my colleagues competed in the Finnish championships in cocktails. And as I have been starting it also little bit myself, I wondered if I could also be there someday competing in the championship. By making cocktails I can implement myself and be creative. I love my job and the funniest and the best thing is that you will never be ready. Trends change constantly and new stuff is being developed all the time.

In my life, there have been many types of adversity. Everything started in junior high school when I was bullied. The things and events accumulated during all those years and I was diagnosed with moderate depression. For that, I have received drug therapy and psychotherapy. Those have been a big help for me, and even if the recovery is still in progress, I feel much better nowadays. Therapy has already ended, but fortunately, I have a few good friends to whom I can turn to if needed.

My last tattoo is the “I am enough” text in my hand. It hardly needs any explanation, because it’s just that. Even though my mind doesn’t always agree, I’m good and enough exactly like this.